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In a space that continues to fill up with competition from small startups and incumbents alike, Spotify is trying to acquire as many new users as possible with the launch of a 50 percent discount for college students.

The discount takes Spotify’s premium $10 subscription and slashes it in half, as long as the user is registered in any four-year, two-year or junior college in the country. SheerID will verify that these subscribers are, in fact, enrolled in school.

The idea here is to grab new users as quickly as possible, and worry about the money later. And eventually, without a doubt, Spotify will have to worry about the money.

Streaming music is an expensive business, which is why so many of these apps and services struggle to make money. Another reason they struggle is that big boys like Spotify and Pandora have already won over a major chunk of the audience.

This isn’t the first time that Spotify has tried to make its service more affordable and attractive to potential users. In December, Spotify announced a free internet radio-type product called Shuffle for smartphones, and opened up full, free access on Android tablets.

But even with the discounts and the free products, it’s a tough world out there for a streaming music startup. Even one valued at $4 billion.

Students interested in taking advantage of the discount can sign up here.

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Crunchbase

OverviewSpotify is a commercial music streaming service that provides restricted digital content from a range of record labels and artists. Users can browse through the interface by artist, album, genre, playlist, record label, and direct searches.
It also enables individuals to create, share, and edit playlists with other users. If users want recommendations, they can integrate their system with Last.fm, …